Scholastic Achievements

Scholastic excellence has always been a primary goal at Nabor House. To be accepted as a pledge, an individual must be in the upper one-third of his high school graduation class and have high grade points. A minimum 2.5 GPA (on a 4.0) scale is required to become an active member in Nabor House.

Study hours and study rules are imposed on pledges and actives to encourage good scholarship. Nabors have always encouraged on another to aim high scholastically and have supported one another in achieving these goals. And Nabor House as an organization has developed some activities to encourage and recognize excellence. Both the house had individual Nabors have received numerous scholastic awards, so numerous in fact, that it is impossible to list them all.

Often, Nabor House has been singled out as one of the top scholastic houses on the University of Illinois campus. Several Honors Day recognitions have been given to Nabor House over the years. One at least one occasion, Nabor House was the only men's house on campus to be so recognized. In 1958, Nabor House was one of two houses on the campus to receive a gift of a 24-volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica, presented by Encyclopedia Britannica, Ind., through the Champaign-Urbana Courier.

Nabors are justifiably proud of their scholastic record. its aim for achieving high scholastic excellence is a very important goal to Nabors. Achievement of it reflects high personal standards and a strong work ethic, both of which are important to a successful career and to success in life in general.

Steak 'n' Beans Supper

In the fall of 1959, a Steak 'n' Beans Supper was initiated as a means of encouraging scholastic achievement. Actives and pledges whose past semester GPA was above the house average eat steak, and those below the house average eat beans. Variations of this scholarship banquet have been tried over the years, but generally it has served to encourage better study habits. Some of these dinners have been formal, others extremely informal. On rare occasions, the beans have actually been considered a better meal than the steak due to kitchen foul-ups.Several times, the house average has been above a 3.2 (on a 4.0 scale) GPA, meaning an individual could have a 3.2 GPA and still eat beans.

The Steak 'n' Beans Supper has served as a forum to recognize individual and group scholastic accomplishments and encourage improvements where needed. Recognition for classes, rooms, Big Brother-Little Brother teams, and others are included. An Eight-Ball Award has been passed around since at least the mid-1960s to the Nabor who has had the largest GPA drop in the last semester. When the event began, a small traveling trophy was awarded to the individual who made the most improvement in his grades the previous semester. This was discontinued along the way, for according to a 1974 Nabor Nubbins, a new trophy called the MIG Award was unveiled and was to be given to the member with the most improved GPA. Both the MIG and eight-ball trophies are still in use today.

Bronze Tablet

Bronze Tablet is the highest academic honor attainable by undergraduate students at the University of Illinois. To qualify, undergraduate students must have at least a 3.5 GPA (on a 4.0 scale) for all work taken at the University through the academic term prior to their graduation and must rank, on the basis of their cumulative GPA (including UIUC and transfer work, if any) through the academic term prior to their graduation, in the top three percent of the students in their college graduating class.

The names who make Bronze Tablet are inscribed on a bronze tablet, that is hung in the University Library with the Bronze Tablets of previous years. In tribute to and respect for Nabors who have received Bronze Tablet recognition, their fellow Nabors have their names inscribed on a plaque which hangs permanently in a prominent place in the front hallf of the Illinois Chapter house. For a list of Nabors who have made Bronze Tablet, click HERE.

Fun Fact

Philip L. Wagenknecht, '70, is believed to hold the most degrees of any Nabor. He has five: BS in Ag Science, '70, BS in Vet. Medicine, '72, MS, '73, and DVM, '74, all from the Uof I. He also has an MBA, '84, from Lake Forest (IL) Graduate School of Management. Prior to enrolling at the University of Illinois, he studied at Sauk Valley College in Dixon, Ill., while serving as a state officer for the FFA.